Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor that the United States Congress can bestow. It was awarded to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in a ceremony at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, March 21, 2018.
"100 to 200 former members of the OSS are believed to be alive" from the "13,000 civilians and service members" that the OSS employed "at its height"; and among the dwindling ranks of the survivors, only "about 20 OSS veterans" gathered in Washington DC for the award ceremony.[note 1]
Only one was present from all of the US Operational Groups of the OSS: me at 93 years of age. I was accompanied to the award ceremony by three of my adult children.
These six United States Operational Groups were comprised mainly of Americans of ethnic backgrounds who volunteered for hazardous duty behind enemy lines in the countries whose languages they spoke: the Greek/USOG, Yugoslav/USOG, Norwegian/USOG, French/USOG, German/USOG, and Italian/USOG.
The Greek/USOG itself had six groups of twenty-four men and two officers each when we left the United States. The type of warfare was unique in which the Greek/USOG (Co. C., 2671 Special Reconnaissance Battalion) was engaged, according to OSS records:[note 2]
"During a period of 219 days from 23 April until 20 November 1944, troops of Co. C., 2671 Special Reconnaissance Battalion [the Greek/USOG] were continuously in occupied Greece. The type of warfare they engaged in was unique in the history of the American Army."
253 days was the total for my own Group 4 of the Greek/USOG on the front lines at the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia and then behind the lines in occupied Greece: 16 February to 19 June 1944 and then 16 July to 20 November 1944, respectively.[note 3]
It saddens me that I was the only one who was still alive and able to go to the ceremony, but it was seventy-three years after the war.
It also saddens me that none of these six United States Operational Groups were mentioned during the award ceremony at Washington DC, although the USOGs collectively saw more battles than any other units of the OSS combined.
The name of an OSS airborne unit is emblazoned on the Congressional Gold Medal because they flew the soldiers into the battle zones (and flew themselves out);[note 4] but "USOG" does not appear among the names on the medal, not even the shortest two letter abbreviation "OG" — to remember those men who were flown into battle zones and who stayed there.
The code name of an operation in which the Italian/USOG was involved, "PEE DEE", is included on the medal; but it was a single battle involving one USOG among many battles by the six ethnic USOGs. Why did the OSS Society single out its name for preferential treatment while ignoring the much longer and much wider, excellent battle records of all of the ethnic USOGs? Someone's influence, perhaps? No matter how important the single operation might have been, it was no more important and no more difficult than other operations by the ethnic USOGs, and it should not have eclipsed our excellent, fuller battle records. It looks strange on the medal.
Only one OSS veteran spoke during the award ceremony. The other speakers were politicians and government officials, along with a OSS Society executive on the podium. There was nothing about the ethnic USOGs in anyone's speech, not even for a moment. It was as if these USOGs had hardly existed while plane pilots were acknowledged, pilots who flew infantry to drop points.
The ethnic USOGs have been ignored repeatedly or relegated to second-class status in the OSS Society. This sort of disregard surfaced early in the history. After a couple of our initial successful raids in the Adriatic, Major P. G. Lovell — who had limited military training and involvement[note 5] — tried to merge the Greek/USOG and the Yugoslav/USOG into a "Balkan Group". He would have become a colonel through the merger but at the expense of the two USOGs, which would have lost their identities. Captain Bob Houlihan and Captain Andy Rogers, the commanding officers of the Greek/USOG and of the Yugoslav/USOG respectively, went over Lovell's head and contacted Colonel Russell Livermore, the Commanding Officer of all of the ethnic Operational Groups who agreed that the Greek/USOG and the Yugoslav/USOG would remain distinct.
Forty-eight years later, a reference to a "Balkan Group" surfaced again. This time it happened in 1992 during the OSS 50th anniversary commemoration at McClean, Virginia, near CIA headquarters. By this time, our key officers such as Captain Houlihan and Captain Rogers had died. So had First Sargent Strimenos who was another excellent leader of the Greek/USOG. A few other veterans attended — three other Greek/USOG veterans including an officer and then two Yugoslav/USOG veterans — but they did not wish to get involved when I asked them to help me correct the nonsense about a "Balkan Group". This old guy had to struggle on his own. I was unable to discover who was responsible for the concoction "Balkan Group". So, I entered interview rooms and demanded to be heard. People looked blank at me for a moment and then continued with their own interviews as if I wasn't there. Yes, I was upset. Finally, a young military historian Troy Sacquety took notice, and he approached me. He promised to try to correct the mistake We exchanged e-mail addresses. I did not expect much help from the young man. I was pleasantly surprised later.
The next year, 1993, I am glad to say, the Special Forces and their CO General Downing referred to the USOGs as the "grandfathers" of the Special Forces — the USOGs only. This took place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during a USOG reunion. Fort Bragg is the headquarters of the United States Army Special Operations Command.
Troy Sacquety was there. In the meantime, he had come to Oakland, California, to interview me as a member of Group 4 of the Greek/USOG, and I drove him to San Jose to interview Angelo Lygizos as a member of Group 5. Troy received his doctorate in military history at Texas A & M. He was assigned to Fort Bragg as a military historian; and he edited Fort Bragg's quarterly magazine Veritas, in which he featured Commando units such as the Rangers, the Seals, and the Operational Groups. Whenever he would write about the Operational Groups, he would recognize the Greek/USOG and the Yugoslav/USOG distinctly.[note 6]
In 1993, Troy was proud to show me the Operational Groups monument that had been placed there on the grounds at Fort Bragg, and I was very pleased to see that the monument included each of the six ethnic USOGs clearly and distinctly, including the Greek/USOG and the Yugoslav/USOG. But this occurred outside the OSS reunion programs.
Inside the OSS reunion programs, things were different. At Fort Bragg in 2009, there was a reunion for all of the OSS veterans and spouses. My wife Mary and I attended. The ethnic USOGs were ignored during the program despite the monument there on the grounds of Fort Bragg, despite the articles in Fort Bragg's magazine Veritas, and despite the Special Forces at Fort Bragg, 1993, referring to the USOGs as the Special Forces' "grandfathers". So, after the OSS reunion ceremony, Caesar Civitelli confronted (retired) General Singlaub in the lobby. Civitelli was a veteran leader of the Italian/USOG. Singlaub was a key speaker in the program, a former officer of the OSS and a founding member of the CIA. Old Civitelli grabbed Singlaub by the throat, yelling at him for ignoring the USOGs "again!" I grabbed Civitelli from behind, worrying he might hurt Singlaub. Civitelli and I had not met before then. Caesar Civitelli died a few weeks before the Congressional Gold Medal presentation in Washington DC.
[Skip the navigation links: Jump to the Citation Guidelines.]
[Skip the citation guidelines: Jump to the Bottom of the Page.]
Congressional Gold Medal,Addendum 2 (PAHH.com, 2018) in Greek / American Operational Group Office of Strategic Services (OSS): Memoirs of World War 2 (PAHH.com, 2004), available at http://www.pahh.com/oss/addendum-2/p63.html
(This is the bottom of the page.)